In case you missed it, HERE is the 2012 Solution-Focused Coach Training Program!

See you in Orange County, California! :)

Tags: 2012, Accredited Coach Training Program, ACTP, Appreciative Inquiry, Business Coaching, David Chow, executive coaching, Life Coaching, Orange County, Organizational Development, Paolo Terni, Peter Szabo, PURE, Solution Focus, solutionsurfers, training

Are you curious about Solution-Focused Brief Coaching?

Do you want to make progress on your projects? Do you need to make a decision? Do you want to get unstuck and move forward, whatever the issue is? Are you having problems with co-workers or people in your life and you would like to solve them?

Then a coaching session might be useful to you!

Here’s the deal.

I offer:

- one free solution-focused brief-coaching session (30 minutes)

- delivered via Skype

It is the real thing, so expect all the benefits of a regular coaching session.

And here is the catch:

- the audio of the session will be recorded

- the session will be made available to my trainees (and only them) for learning purposes (so I would need you to sign a paper authorizing that).

I need more demos so that my brief coach trainees can be exposed to a even  higher number of real life sessions,  in addition to the practice sessions that take place during the workshop, before they set out to coach themselves.

It is a win-win situation: I get more taped sessions to use in my trainings, you get free coaching!

If interested, please send me an email at: briefcoachingsolutions@gmail.com

Thanks!

Tags: demo, free coaching, PURE, recorded session, Solution-Focused Brief Coaching, solutionsurfers, training

I am so excited to be leading Solutionsurfers Brief Coach Training in Berkeley, next week, at the beautiful UC Clark Kerr Campus!

An Accredited Coach Training Program (ACTP) with the International Coach Federation (ICF), the training is one of the best way to learn how to lead Solution-Focused conversations – a method featured in books like Switch, and an established protocol in therapy.

> Here < are some reasons of why learning Brief Coaching skills matters, if you are a Coach, a Consultant, a Manager, an Executive or anyone in a Leadership position. Whenever you need to facilitate change, Solution-Focus is the quickest evidence-based technology we have.

> Here < is what is different, and of value, about Solutionsurfers training program.

And > here < are the details – when, where and how much. At 2,980 US$ for 8 days of training and follow-up Skype sessions, with flexible payment options, the price is hard to beat, considering the quality of the training format refined over the years and delivered in such small groups.

There are still two spots left… send me an email now at briefcoachingsolutions@gmail.com if you are interested in attending next week!!

See you in Berkeley soon!

Tags: Berkeley, Brief Coach Training Program, California, Change, learning, PURE, Solution Focused, solutionsurfers, training

Since I am taking a short vacation, I will not be posting again in 2 weeks (my usual interval between posts) but in 4 weeks. To compensate for it, here is an extra-long post. Enjoy!

I am going to contrast and compare two different books: Dan Ariely’s latest, The Upside of Irrationality; and Daniel Pink’s  Drive.

Both books are terrific. They read very well. They are very engaging. The authors make an extra effort to illustrate their concepts in the simplest and most understandable way. They both use metaphors that are clear and effective in their power to explain. Not only these two books are a pleasure to read – they are also very informative.

Ariely’s book is sort of a sequel to his hugely successful Predictably Irrational: the Hidden Forces that Shape our Behavior. However in The Upside of Irrationality Dan Ariely’s takes a more compassionate stance towards the bias that make us irrational decision makers, a.k.a. humans. In keeping with this softer perspective, the book shines with many personal stories that are going to touch the reader. And it is no accident that the focus of this book is not “the consumers’” behavior but how people behave at work and in their own personal life. So we have 5 chapters about “how we defy logic at work”, and another 5 about “how we defy logic at home”.

Dan Pink’ s Drive feeds on the work of Ariely and many others on the science of motivation. Pink is a master in making the insights gained by recent research  understandable and readily usable by managers and businessmen. Drive is a call for a general and comprehensive rethinking of the ways in which we organize what we do.  Pink’s metaphor of assumptions that societies have about human behavior as being their operating system is brilliant and enlightening in and of itself! Moreover, the second part of the book is a treasure trove of practical advice - simple strategies to implement the ideas illustrated in Drive.
Continue reading…

Tags: book review, brief coaching, coaching, Dan Ariely, Daniel Pink, Drive, epistemology, marketing, motivation, psychological bias, science, The Upside of Irrationality, training

Solutionsurfers PURE Brief Coach Training, Module 2, Basel, May 17-19

Tags: Basel, brief coaching, Jesper Hankovszky Christiansen, Peter Szabo, solutionsurfers, training

The Dunning-Kruger Effect: people with low levels of ability in a certain field vastly over-rate their talents because they lack the skills to judge their own competence (definition from Mind Hacks Blog).

I see it all the time in trainings: Workshop participants learn something. They get the hang of, say, how to lead a motivational interview, and then I watch in horror as, all of a sudden, they go about touting their skills and marketing themselves as professional interviewers.

This is another reason why I like Solution-Focused practice.
Of course the Dunning-Kruger Effect is still lurking in the background when I lead the Solutionsurfers Training Program for Brief Coaches.
However, as part of the program and inherent in the SF practice itself, lots and lots of positive and specific behavioral feedback is given.
Participants quickly learn to observe details and little cues: what did I say exactly? How did clients respond to that? What did they do specifically? What did they say, and so on.
Trainees are taught to observe, observe and observe, paying close attention to behavioral cues and nuances in the interactions.
They are taught to share those observations with other participants.
They are also taught to think about what they would do differently, if they had the chance to have the same coaching interaction again.

This is a powerful way of defusing the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Granted, it takes time. But I know of no other way,

Our job as trainers is to bring our students quickly to the “other side” of the Dunning-Kruger Effect where improving people’s skills reduces their self-assessment as they also learn to judge their ability level more accurately (again in the words of Mind Hacks Blog).

Paradoxically, then, a trainer does a good job if, at the end of a training program, (on a scale from 1 to 10), the trainees rate their skill levels at a 6, 7 or an 8, rather than at a 10. it means they are being realistic and it means they appreciate the difficulties involved in the skill-set taught. Experience will move the trainees forward on their proficiency scale!

For more thoughts on the issue, check out Coert Visser’s posting.

Tags: Dunning-Kruger Effect, feedback, Psychology, self-assessment, skills, Solution Focused, solutionsurfers, training